Identify common security risks that might be present in your network, and find the right Cisco IOS security feature to prevent security break-ins.

About This Guide

The Cisco IOS Security Configuration Guide describes how to configure Cisco IOS security features for your Cisco networking devices. These security features can protect your network against degradation or failure and also against data loss or compromise resulting from intentional attacks and from unintended but damaging mistakes by well-meaning network users.

The following sections briefly describe each of these parts and the appendixes.

Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA)

This part describes how to configure Cisco's authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) paradigm. AAA is an architectural framework for configuring a set of three independent security functions in a consistent, modular manner.

•Authentication—Provides the method of identifying users, including login and password dialog, challenge and response, messaging support, and, depending on the security protocol you select, encryption. Authentication is the way a user is identified prior to being allowed access to the network and network services. You configure AAA authentication by defining a named list of authentication methods and then applying that list to various interfaces.

•Authorization—Provides the method for remote access control, including one-time authorization or authorization for each service, per-user account list and profile, user group support, and support of IP, IPX, ARA, and Telnet.

Remote security servers, such as RADIUS and TACACS+, authorize users for specific rights by associating attribute-value (AV) pairs, which define those rights, with the appropriate user. AAA authorization works by assembling a set of attributes that describe what the user is authorized to perform. These attributes are compared with the information contained in a database for a given user, and the result is returned to AAA to determine the user's actual capabilities and restrictions.

•Accounting—Provides the method for collecting and sending security server information used for billing, auditing, and reporting, such as user identities, start and stop times, executed commands (such as PPP), number of packets, and number of bytes. Accounting enables you to track the services users are accessing, as well as the amount of network resources they are consuming.

Note You can configure authentication outside of AAA. However, you must configure AAA if you want to use RADIUS, TACACS+, or Kerberos or if you want to configure a backup authentication method.

Security Server Protocols

In many circumstances, AAA uses security protocols to administer its security functions. If your router or access server is acting as a network access server, AAA is the means through which you establish communication between your network access server and your RADIUS, TACACS+, or Kerberos security server.

The chapters in this part describe how to configure the following security server protocols:

•RADIUS—A distributed client/server system implemented through AAA that secures networks against unauthorized access. In the Cisco implementation, RADIUS clients run on Cisco routers and send authentication requests to a central RADIUS server that contains all user authentication and network service access information.

•TACACS+—A security application implemented through AAA that provides centralized validation of users attempting to gain access to a router or network access server. TACACS+ services are maintained in a database on a TACACS+ daemon running, typically, on a UNIX or Windows NT workstation. TACACS+ provides for separate and modular authentication, authorization, and accounting facilities.

•Kerberos—A secret-key network authentication protocol implemented through AAA that uses the Data Encryption Standard (DES) cryptographic algorithm for encryption and authentication. Kerberos was designed to authenticate requests for network resources. Kerberos is based on the concept of a trusted third party that performs secure verification of users and services. The primary use of Kerberos is to verify that users and the network services they use are really who and what they claim to be. To accomplish this, a trusted Kerberos server issues tickets to users. These tickets, which have a limited lifespan, are stored in a user's credential cache and can be used in place of the standard username-and-password authentication mechanism.

Traffic Filtering and Firewalls

This part describes how to configure your networking devices to filter traffic or to function as a firewall.

•Cisco implements traffic filters with access control lists (also called access lists). Access lists determine what traffic is blocked and what traffic is forwarded at router interfaces. Cisco provides both basic and advanced access list capabilities.

–Basic access lists

An overview of basic access lists is in the chapter "Access Control Lists: Overview and Guidelines." This chapter describes tips, cautions, considerations, recommendations, and general guidelines for configuring access lists for the various network protocols. You should configure basic access lists for all network protocols that will be routed through your networking device, such as IP, IPX, AppleTalk, and so forth.

–Advanced access lists

The advanced access list capabilities and configuration are described in the remaining chapters in the "Traffic Filtering and Firewalls" part of this document. The advanced access lists provide sophisticated and dynamic traffic filtering capabilities for stronger, more flexible network security.

•Cisco IOS Firewall provides an extensive set of security features, allowing you to configure a simple or elaborate firewall, according to your particular requirements. The following features are key components of Cisco IOS Firewall:

–Context-based Access Control (CBAC)

CBAC intelligently filters TCP and UDP packets based on application-layer protocol session information. You can configure CBAC to permit specified TCP and UDP traffic through a firewall only when the connection is initiated from within the network you want to protect. CBAC can inspect traffic for sessions that originate from either side of the firewall, and CBAC can be used for intranet, extranet, and Internet perimeters of your network.

–Cisco IOS Firewall Intrusion Detection System (IDS)

The Cisco IOS Firewall IDS supports intrusion detection technology for mid-range and high-end router platforms with firewall support. It identifies 59 of the most common attacks using "signatures" to detect patterns of misuse in network traffic. The Cisco IOS Firewall IDS acts as an in-line intrusion detection sensor, watching packets and sessions as they flow through the router, scanning each to match any of the IDS signatures. When it detects suspicious activity, it responds before network security can be compromised and logs the event through Cisco IOS syslog.

Cisco IOS Firewall IDS is compatible with the Cisco Secure Intrusion Detection System (formally known as NetRanger)—an enterprise-scale, real-time intrusion detection system designed to detect, report, and terminate unauthorized activity throughout a network.

–Authentication Proxy

The Cisco IOS Firewall authentication proxy feature allows network administrators to apply specific security policies on a per-user basis. Previously, user identity and related authorized access were associated with a user's IP address, or a single security policy had to be applied to an entire user group or sub network. Now, users can be identified and authorized on the basis of their per-user policy, and access privileges tailored on an individual basis are possible, as opposed to general policy applied across multiple users.

–Port to Application Mapping (PAM)

Port to Application Mapping (PAM) is a feature of Cisco Secure Integrated Software. PAM allows you to customize TCP or UDP port numbers for network services or applications. PAM uses this information to support network environments that run services using ports that are different from the registered or well-known ports associated with an application. For example, the information in the PAM table enables Context-based Access Control (CBAC) supported services to run on non-standard ports.

IP Security and Encryption

This part describes how to configure IP security and encryption in the following chapters:

•Configuring IPSec Network Security

This chapter describes how to configure IPSec. IPSec provides security for transmission of sensitive information over unprotected networks such as the Internet IPSec provides data authentication and anti-replay services in addition to data confidentiality services.

•Configuring Certification Authority Interoperability

This chapter describes how to configure certification authority (CA) interoperability. CA interoperability permits Cisco IOS devices and CAs to communicate so that your Cisco IOS device can obtain and use digital certificates from the CA.

•Configuring Internet Key Exchange Security Protocol

This chapter describes how to configure Internet Key Exchange (IKE). IKE is a key management protocol standard that is used in conjunction with the IPSec standard. IPSec can be configured without IKE, but IKE enhances IPSec by providing additional features, flexibility, and ease of configuration for the IPSec standard.

Other Security Features

This part describes four important security features in the following chapters:

•Configuring Passwords and Privileges

This chapter describes how to configure static passwords stored on your networking device. These passwords are used to control access to the device's command line prompt to view or change the device configuration.

This chapter also describes how to assign privilege levels to the passwords. You can configure up to 16 different privilege levels and assign each level to a password. For each privilege level you define a subset of Cisco IOS commands that can be executed. You can use these different levels to allow some users the ability to execute all Cisco IOS commands, and to restrict other users to a defined subset of commands.

This chapter also describes how to recover lost passwords.

•Neighbor Router Authentication: Overview and Guidelines

This chapter briefly describes the security benefits and operation of neighbor router authentication.

When neighbor authentication is configured on a router, the router authenticates its neighbor router before accepting any route updates from that neighbor. This ensures that a router always receives reliable routing update information from a trusted source.

•Configuring IP Security Options

This chapter describes how to configure IP Security Options (IPSO) as described in RFC 1108. IPSO is generally used to comply with the security policy of the U.S. government's Department of Defense.

•Configuring Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding

This chapter describes the Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (Unicast RPF) feature, which helps mitigate problems caused by the introduction of malformed or forged (spoofed) IP source addresses into a network by discarding IP packets that lack a verifiable IP source address. For example, a number of common types of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, including Smurf and Tribe Flood Network (TFN), can take advantage of forged or rapidly changing source IP addresses to allow attackers to thwart efforts to locate or filter the attacks. For Internet service providers (ISPs) that provide public access, Unicast RPF deflects such attacks by forwarding only packets that have source addresses that are valid and consistent with the IP routing table. This action protects the network of the ISP, its customer, and the rest of the Internet.

•Configuring Secure Shell

This chapter describes the Secure Shell (SSH) feature. SSH is an application and a protocol that provides a secure replacement to a suite of Unix r-commands such as rsh, rlogin and rcp. (Cisco IOS supports rlogin.) The protocol secures the sessions using standard cryptographic mechanisms, and the application can be used similarly to the Berkeley rexec and rsh tools. There are currently two versions of SSH available: SSH Version 1 and SSH Version 2. Only SSH Version 1 is implemented in the Cisco IOS software.

Appendixes

The appendixes describe the supported RADIUS attributes and TACACS+ attribute-value pairs as follows:

•RADIUS Attributes

RADIUS attributes are used to define specific AAA elements in a user profile, which is stored on the RADIUS daemon. This appendix lists the RADIUS attributes currently supported.

•TACACS+ Attribute-Value Pairs

TACACS+ attribute-value pairs are used to define specific AAA elements in a user profile, which is stored on the TACACS+ daemon. This appendix lists the TACACS+ attribute-value pairs currently supported.

Creating Effective Security Policies

An effective security policy works to ensure that your organization's network assets are protected from sabotage and from inappropriate access—both intentional and accidental.

All network security features should be configured in compliance with your organization's security policy. If you do not have a security policy, or if your policy is out of date, you should ensure that the policy is created or updated before you decide how to configure security on your Cisco device.

The following sections provide guidelines to help you create an effective security policy:

The Nature of Security Policies

You should recognize these aspects of security policies:

•Security policies represent trade-offs.

With all security policies, there is some trade-off between user productivity and security measures that can be restrictive and time consuming. The goal of any security design is to provide maximum security with minimum impact on user access and productivity. Some security measures, such as network data encryption, do not restrict access and productivity. On the other hand, cumbersome or unnecessarily redundant verification and authorization systems can frustrate users and even prevent access to critical network resources.

•Security policies should be determined by business needs.

Business needs should dictate the security policy; a security policy should not determine how a business operates.

•Security policies are living documents.

Because organizations are constantly subject to change, security policies must be systematically updated to reflect new business directions, technological changes, and resource allocations.

Two Levels of Security Policies

You can think of a security policy as having two levels: a requirements level and an implementation level.

•At the requirements level, a policy defines the degree to which your network assets must be protected against intrusion or destruction and also estimates the cost (consequences) of a security breach. For example, the policy could state that only human resources personnel should be able to access personnel records, or that only IS personnel should be able to configure the backbone routers. The policy could also address the consequences of a network outage (due to sabotage), and the consequences of inadvertently making sensitive information public.

•At the implementation level, a policy defines guidelines to implement the requirements-level policy, using specific technology in a predefined way. For example, the implementation-level policy could require access lists to be configured so that only traffic from human resources host computers can access the server containing personnel records.

When creating a policy, define security requirements before defining security implementations so that you do not end up merely justifying particular technical solutions that might not actually be required.

Tips for Developing an Effective Security Policy

To develop an effective security policy, consider the recommendations in the following sections:

Identifying Your Network Assets to Protect

The first step to developing a security policy is to understand and identify your organization's network assets. Network assets include the following:

•Networked hosts (such as PCs; includes the hosts' operating systems, applications, and data)

•Networking devices (such as routers)

•Network data (data that travels across the network)

You must both identify your network's assets and determine the degree to which each of these assets must be protected. For example, one subnetwork of hosts might contain extremely sensitive data that should be protected at all costs, while a different subnetwork of hosts might require only modest protection against security risks because there is less cost involved if the subnetwork is compromised.

Determining Points of Risk

You must understand how potential intruders can enter your organization's network or sabotage network operation. Special areas of consideration are network connections, dial-up access points, and misconfigured hosts. Misconfigured hosts, frequently overlooked as points of network entry, can be systems with unprotected login accounts (guest accounts), employ extensive trust in remote commands (such as rlogin and rsh), have illegal modems attached to them, and use easy-to-break passwords.

Limiting the Scope of Access

Organizations can create multiple barriers within networks, so that unlawful entry to one part of the system does not automatically grant entry to the entire infrastructure. Although maintaining a high level of security for the entire network can be prohibitively expensive (in terms of systems and equipment as well as productivity), you can often provide higher levels of security to the more sensitive areas of your network.

Identifying Assumptions

Every security system has underlying assumptions. For example, an organization might assume that its network is not tapped, that intruders are not very knowledgeable, that intruders are using standard software, or that a locked room is safe. It is important to identify, examine, and justify your assumptions: any hidden assumption is a potential security hole.

Determining the Cost of Security Measures

In general, providing security comes at a cost. This cost can be measured in terms of increased connection times or inconveniences to legitimate users accessing the assets, or in terms of increased network management requirements, and sometimes in terms of actual dollars spent on equipment or software upgrades.

When you decide which security measures to implement, you must understand their costs and weigh these against potential benefits. If the security costs are out of proportion to the actual dangers, it is a disservice to the organization to implement them.

Considering Human Factors

If security measures interfere with essential uses of the system, users resist these measures and sometimes even circumvent them. Many security procedures fail because their designers do not take this fact into account. For example, because automatically generated "nonsense" passwords can be difficult to remember, users often write them on the undersides of keyboards. A "secure" door that leads to a system's only tape drive is sometimes propped open. For convenience, unauthorized modems are often connected to a network to avoid cumbersome dial-in security procedures. To ensure compliance with your security measures, users must be able to get their work done as well as understand and accept the need for security.

Any user can compromise system security to some degree. For example, an intruder might learn passwords by simply calling legitimate users on the telephone claiming to be a system administrator and asking for them. If users understand security issues and understand the reasons for them, they are far less likely to compromise security in this way.

Defining such human factors and any corresponding policies needs to be included as a formal part of your complete security policy.

At a minimum, users must be taught never to release passwords or other secrets over unsecured telephone lines (especially through cordless or cellular telephones) or electronic mail. They should be wary of questions asked by people who call them on the telephone. Some companies have implemented formalized network security training for their employees in which employees are not allowed access to the network until they have completed a formal training program.

Keeping a Limited Number of Secrets

Most security is based on secrets; for example, passwords and encryption keys are secrets. But the more secrets there are, the harder it is to keep all of them. It is prudent, therefore, to design a security policy that relies on a limited number of secrets. Ultimately, the most important secret an organization has is the information that can help someone circumvent its security.

Implementing Pervasive and Scalable Security

Use a systematic approach to security that includes multiple, overlapping security methods.

Almost any change that is made to a system can affect security. This is especially true when new services are created. System administrators, programmers, and users need to consider the security implications of every change they make. Understanding the security implications of a change takes practice; it requires lateral thinking and a willingness to explore every way that a service could potentially be manipulated. The goal of any security policy is to create an environment that is not susceptible to every minor change.

Understanding Typical Network Functions

Understand how your network system normally functions, know what is expected and unexpected behavior, and be familiar with how devices are usually used. This kind of awareness helps the organization detect security problems. Noticing unusual events can help catch intruders before they can damage the system. Software auditing tools can help detect, log, and track unusual events. In addition, an organization should know exactly what software it relies on to provide auditing trails, and a security system should not operate on the assumption that all software is bug free.

Remembering Physical Security

The physical security of your network devices and hosts cannot be neglected. For example, many facilities implement physical security by using security guards, closed circuit television, card-key entry systems, or other means to control physical access to network devices and hosts. Physical access to a computer or router usually gives a sophisticated user complete control over that device. Physical access to a network link usually allows a person to tap into that link, jam it, or inject traffic into it. Software security measures can often be circumvented when access to the hardware is not controlled.

Identifying Security Risks and Cisco IOS Solutions

Cisco IOS software provides a comprehensive set of security features to guard against specific security risks. This section describes a few common security risks that might be present in your network, and describes how to use Cisco IOS software to protect against each of these risks:

Preventing Unauthorized Access into Networking Devices

If someone were to gain console or terminal access into a networking device, such as a router, switch, or network access server, that person could do significant damage to your network—perhaps by reconfiguring the device, or even by simply viewing the device's configuration information.

Typically, you want administrators to have access to your networking device; you do not want other users on your local-area network or those dialing in to the network to have access to the router.

Users can access Cisco networking devices by dialing in from outside the network through an asynchronous port, connecting from outside the network through a serial port, or connecting via a terminal or workstation from within the local network.

To prevent unauthorized access into a networking device, you should configure one or more of the following security features:

•At a minimum, you should configure passwords and privileges at each networking device for all device lines and ports, as described in the chapter "Configuring Passwords and Privileges." These passwords are stored on the networking device. When users attempt to access the device through a particular line or port, they must enter the password applied to the line or port before they can access the device.

•For an additional layer of security, you can also configure username/password pairs, stored in a database on the networking device, as described in the chapter "Configuring Passwords and Privileges." These pairs are assigned to lines or interfaces and authenticate each user before that user can access the device. If you have defined privilege levels, you can also assign a specific privilege level (with associated rights and privileges) to each username/password pair.

•If you want to use username/password pairs, but you want to store them centrally instead of locally on each individual networking device, you can store them in a database on a security server. Multiple networking devices can then use the same database to obtain user authentication (and, if necessary, authorization) information. Cisco supports a variety of security server protocols, such as RADIUS, TACACS+, and Kerberos. If you decide to use the database on a security server to store login username/password pairs, you must configure your router or access server to support the applicable protocol; in addition, because most supported security protocols must be administered through the AAA security services, you will probably need to enable AAA. For more information about security protocols and AAA, refer to the chapters in the "Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA)" part of this document.

•If you want to authorize individual users for specific rights and privileges, you can implement AAA's authorization feature, using a security protocol such as TACACS+ or RADIUS. For more information about security protocol features and AAA, refer to the chapters in the "Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA)" part of this document.

•If you want to have a backup authentication method, you must configure AAA. AAA allows you to specify the primary method for authenticating users (for example, a username/password database stored on a TACACS+ server) and then specify backup methods (for example, a locally stored username/password database.) The backup method is used if the primary method's database cannot be accessed by the networking device. To configure AAA, refer to the chapters in the "Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA)" part of this document. You can configure up to four sequential backup methods.

Note If you do not have backup methods configured, you will be denied access to the device if the username/password database cannot be accessed for any reason.

•If you want to keep an audit trail of user access, configure AAA accounting as described in the chapter "Configuring Accounting."

Preventing Unauthorized Access into Networks

If someone were to gain unauthorized access to your organization's internal network, that person could cause damage in many ways, perhaps by accessing sensitive files from a host, by planting a virus, or by hindering network performance by flooding your network with illegitimate packets.

This risk can also apply to a person within your network attempting to access another internal network such as a Research and Development subnetwork with sensitive and critical data. That person could intentionally or inadvertently cause damage; for example, that person might access confidential files or tie up a time-critical printer.

To prevent unauthorized access through a networking device into a network, you should configure one or more of these security features:

•Traffic Filtering

Cisco uses access lists to filter traffic at networking devices. Basic access lists allow only specified traffic through the device; other traffic is simply dropped. You can specify individual hosts or subnets that should be allowed into the network, and you can specify what type of traffic should be allowed into the network. Basic access lists generally filter traffic based on source and destination addresses, and protocol type of each packet.

Advanced traffic filtering is also available, providing additional filtering capabilities; for example, the Lock-and-Key Security feature requires each user to be authenticated via a username/password before that user's traffic is allowed onto the network.

All the Cisco IOS traffic filtering capabilities are described in the chapters in the "Traffic Filtering and Firewalls" part of this document.

•Authentication

You can require users to be authenticated before they gain access into a network. When users attempt to access a service or host (such as a web site or file server) within the protected network, they must first enter certain data such as a username and password, and possibly additional information such as their date of birth or mother's maiden name. After successful authentication (depending on the method of authentication), users will be assigned specific privileges, allowing them to access specific network assets. In most cases, this type of authentication would be facilitated by using CHAP or PAP over a serial PPP connection in conjunction with a specific security protocol, such as TACACS+ or RADIUS.

Just as in preventing unauthorized access to specific network devices, you need to decide whether or not you want the authentication database to reside locally or on a separate security server. In this case, a local security database is useful if you have very few routers providing network access. A local security database does not require a separate (and costly) security server. A remote, centralized security database is convenient when you have a large number of routers providing network access because it prevents you from having to update each router with new or changed username authentication and authorization information for potentially hundreds of thousands of dial-in users. A centralized security database also helps establish consistent remote access policies throughout a corporation.

Cisco IOS software supports a variety of authentication methods. Although AAA is the primary (and recommended) method for access control, Cisco IOS software provides additional features for simple access control that are outside the scope of AAA. For more information, refer to the chapter "Configuring Authentication."

Preventing Network Data Interception

When packets travel across a network, they are susceptible to being read, altered, or "hijacked." (Hijacking occurs when a hostile party intercepts a network traffic session and poses as one of the session endpoints.)

If the data is traveling across an unsecured network such as the Internet, the data is exposed to a fairly significant risk. Sensitive or confidential data could be exposed, critical data could be modified, and communications could be interrupted if data is altered.

To protect data as it travels across a network, configure network data encryption, as described in the chapter "Configuring IPSec Network Security."

IPSec provides the following network security services. These services are optional. In general, local security policy will dictate the use of one or more of the following services:

•Data Confidentiality—The IPSec sender can encrypt packets before transmitting them across a network.

•Data Integrity—The IPSec receiver can authenticate packets sent by the IPSec sender to ensure that the data has not been altered during transmission.

•Data Origin Authentication—The IPSec receiver can authenticate the source of the IPSec packets sent. This service is dependent upon the data integrity service.

Cisco IPSec prevents routed traffic from being examined or tampered with while it travels across a network. This feature causes IP packets to be encrypted at a Cisco router, routed across a network as encrypted information, and decrypted at the destination Cisco router. In between the two routers, the packets are in encrypted form and therefore the packets' contents cannot be read or altered. You define what traffic should be encrypted between the two routers, according to what data is more sensitive or critical.

If you want to protect traffic for protocols other than IP, you can encapsulate those other protocols into IP packets using GRE encapsulation, and then encrypt the IP packets.

Typically, you do not use IPSec for traffic that is routed through networks that you consider secure. Consider using IPSec for traffic that is routed across unsecured networks, such as the Internet, if your organization could be damaged if the traffic is examined or tampered with by unauthorized individuals.

Preventing Fraudulent Route Updates

All routing devices determine where to route individual packets by using information stored in route tables. This route table information is created using route updates obtained from neighboring routers.

If a router receives a fraudulent update, the router could be tricked into forwarding traffic to the wrong destination. This could cause sensitive data to be exposed, or could cause network communications to be interrupted.

To ensure that route updates are received only from known, trusted neighbor routers, configure neighbor router authentication as described in the chapter "Neighbor Router Authentication: Overview and Guidelines."